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Asian markets end on flat note

The Nikkei ended just in the black Friday, but some tech stocks fell.
The Nikkei ended just in the black Friday, but some tech stocks fell.

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(CNN) -- Key Asian markets ended on a flat note Friday, reversing early gains after Wall Street's higher close. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average put on 0.04 percent to 10,650.77.

South Korea and Australia finished in the red, while Hong Kong added 0.3 percent. Singapore is doing best with a gain of about 0.6 percent near the close.

Taiwan and New Zealand closed modestly higher, with gains of 0.2 percent.

The Nikkei's flat finish came after it went as high as 10,707 in the morning session. That followed its 0.6 percent fall on Thursday which ended a four-day winning run to 14-month highs.

The broader Topix dipped into the red, closing down 0.39 percent to 1026.21. Big banks and telecom stocks were broadly lower, but automakers were strong.

Japanese shares began the day higher, as tech stocks such as Advantest and Tokyo Electron moved up after a bullish third-quarter outlook from U.S. chip giant Intel. (Full story)

They eased as the day wore on, but Advantest still managed to post a gain of 0.6 percent. Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC and Toshiba were all lower, though Sanyo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric closed up 1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.

Consumer electronics leader Sony was among the gainers, up 2 percent to 4000 yen.

Automakers showed some of the biggest rises, led by Honda with a gain of 4.5 percent to 5080 yen. Nissan was up 2.6 percent to 1339 yen and Toyota ended 1.1 percent higher to 3480 yen.

The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, lost 1.4 percent to 288,000 yen. Rivals KDDI and Japan Telecom were also lower, both off about 2.5 percent.

Big banks ended in the red, with SMFG off 5 percent, MTFG down 4 percent and Mizuho and UFJ about 2 percent lower.

Among industrials, Nippon Steel and JFE Holdings fell about 2.8 percent each.

Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi closed down 0.34 percent to 761.55, with another 1.8 percent fall for SK Telecom to 191,500 won. Hyundai Motor was flat and market heavyweight Samsung Electronics finished 1.6 percent higher to 443,000 won.

The market's big mover was Kookmin Bank, which lost 6.5 percent to 42,400 won after Goldman Sachs sold a 4 percent stake for $465 million. (Full story)

Australia's S&P/ASX200 also finished in the red, down 0.39 percent to 3213.8 after touching 14-month highs earlier in the week.

Media giant News Corp was off 2.3 percent to A$13.29, and there were falls of 1.6 percent for Telstra and 1 percent for BHP Billiton. Most of the big banks closed slightly higher, but leading bank NAB ended down 0.16 percent to A$30.74.

Taiwan's Taiex finished 0.24 percent higher at 5639.03. The market's biggest stock, chip foundry TSMC, put on 3 percent to T$68.00, equalling its high for the year.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished up 0.29 percent to 11,170.61. Big bank HSBC rose 0.5 percent to HK$101.50.

Conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa ended in the red, but China Mobile continued to make gains, up 1.9 percent to HK$21.30.

Oil and gas producer CNOOC put on 2.5 percent after posting a 75 percent jump in interim earnings. (Full story)

Singapore's Straits Times index is up about 0.35 percent to 1616.08. Bank DBS is up 1.6 percent, SingTel is flat and Singapore Airlines is down 0.9 percent.

The moves in Asia followed another strong day Thursday for Wall Street, where the Dow put on 0.2 percent to a high for the year of 9587.90, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.87 percent. (Full story)


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